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like I said, per the marker trick, my angle seems to be good. the only looming question for me is about pressure. one person here said light and another said hard depending on the stainless knife and the stone quality. I also don't know how long it takes to acquire said burr on this knife or any knife for that matter. I've definitely been dragging my finger over the edge and it has seemed like there's an edge on one side and not on the other. if I find that to be the case, what's next? maybe this is where I'm going wrong.

here's what I've got so far. as far as I could tell there was very little edge bevel when I began. solely the blade bevel.

Looking good so far, your new bevel looks nice and even. Sounds like you have formed a burr on one side, keep going until you feel that evenly from tip to heel then work the other side of the blade until you feel the same on that side. (burr will form on opposite side that is against stone) Now the tricky part with soft stainless, go from one side to the other with fewer and lighter strokes each time. You should feel that burr flip back and forth to the opposite side each time, and get smaller each time When you feel like you can't get it smaller anymore go to the finer grit stone, or if you are on your finest stone you can strop on leather, balsa, felt, newspaper, and/or run the blade across the end of a soft piece of wood to tear off any remaining burr.

with soft stainless, go from one side to the other with fewer and lighter strokes each time. You should feel that burr flip back and forth to the opposite side each time, and get smaller each time When you feel like you can't get it smaller anymore go to the finer grit stone, or if you are on your finest stone you can strop on leather

did this to the best of my ability. not any sharper. maybe i just need to practice and refine my approach. or perhaps the blade itself is partially to blame. should this knife be able to slice off hair? ill have my hiro in hand tomorrow. not sure if and/or how ill sharpen it before use.

did this to the best of my ability. not any sharper. maybe i just need to practice and refine my approach. or perhaps the blade itself is partially to blame. should this knife be able to slice off hair? ill have my hiro in hand tomorrow. not sure if and/or how ill sharpen it before use.

Also I used to do the hair shave test occasionally it's not really a great test I now realise. Unless you plan to shave with it!
You also have to go to a high level of polish to shave with a blade... 1k with some stropping prob won't .
Better tests are slicing paper(the finer the paper the better), newspaper is good. If it slices paper with ease it's sharp. if you go slow through the paper you can feel any imperfections in your edge and you can also feel the toothyness of your edge.
I would say the best test for an edge is an obvious one.... Use the knife!
Onions are a good test, as are tomatoes... Mushrooms etc
I think you'll find your hiro a lot easier. Any new J knife I've ever sharpened takes no time at all to form a burr.... Should be less than a minute. So just to reiterate don't get hung up on shave tests! Besides a toothy edge is more practical for an all round knife.

good advice. I wasn't using it as a litmus but was hoping to achieve it at least. I cooked with it this morning, it cuts much better no doubt. onions pepper and broccoli with relative ease. going to try creating and removing burr again and cut some paper.

what's the lowest grit I should start on an AS hiro fresh out of the box? I continually hear they aren't very sharp on arrival. i will examine thinning down the road, getting conflicting reports on thinness.

About recent Hiromotos: they come out of the box with an edge of about 6 degree per side, plus a microbevel of some 10 degree right and 15 degree left. That microbevel is a fair indication that you may follow.
As they come quite thin nowadays thinning is far from urgent.

You don't have to worry about angles and proportions. If you like an existent configuration, you will try to restore it. If you want to do so, feel free.
My only purpose was to indicate the OOTB edge is a very common and workable one, and you may very well stick with it.
You will probably start a few mm above the very edge, go down til you raise a burr, switch side and do the same at the other one.
The marker trick or the scratch pattern will tell you where you're actually abrading steel, and how far you are from the very edge. And the burr, and only the burr, will tell you you've reached it.

As I said if you insist on achieving an edge that will shave you would need a higher grit polishing stone. Between 3k&6k would be a good next step. In saying that I don't think there's anything wrong with a 1k edge ( with further stropping)

As for asymmetry ... This can be confusing when learning I must admit I was quite confused by it for a while , the thread benuser suggested is great... But a big read
The 5 degree difference he mentioned will be easier than you think. If you want to maintain original geometry ( a good idea for now) you can find the angle of each side ( they will be different!) fairly adequately on something like a small cardboard box or a leather belt. Lay the knife flat then slide it along ( edge leading) slowly raising the spine . When it digs in that's the current angle. Not sure if it this would work with microbevels though...benuser please chime in if this is bad advice